Surely you have some measure of empathy for their position? I’m sure you certainly did in 08, as people lost their homes.

I think it’s a topic that’s scary to many and this datacenter-to-be, or the local banker, just happens to be what they can easily protest.

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miiiiiike 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

2008 is apples vs oranges. The proposed data center site is across the street from the dump, just south of the airport. It’s zoned for heavy industrial use.

Literally anything that they could build there other than a data center would have a greater negative impact on the environment and a far less positive economic impact.

I could build a concrete crushing plant there.

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oblio 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Most other things they could build there could create a lot more local jobs.

	▲	miiiiiike 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And create a lot more pollution while generating much, much less in property tax revenue.

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pesus 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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miiiiiike 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is that all you have? Calling people sociopaths?

No, I feel a great deal of empathy for and solidarity with my neighbors. Enough that I’ll argue for acting in our self-interest even if it’s unpopular.

And what do you do when your neighbors are being mislead? When their fears, anxieties, and hardships are being exploited by demagogues attempting to consolidate their power by whipping them up into an unthinking emotional frenzy?

For this region, for this site, the property tax boon from a data center would far outweigh any negative impacts and any other industrial activity would be more harmful to the environment and less beneficial to the community.

I’m one person. I vote yes. Everyone gets a vote as well. I’m going to make my case.

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catapart 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

[flagged]

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miiiiiike 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That’s all you got out of my comment?

What do you propose building next to the dump? South of the airport? Zoned for heavy industrial use.

A playground?

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catapart 4 hours ago | parent [-]

All I got out of any of your comments is 'my psuedo-libertarian disposition has rotted my brain past the ability to understand why the problems with megastructure ghost towns are obvious to and unliked by normal people'

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miiiiiike 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I lived in Northern Virginia, data center capital of the US. It’s far from a “megastructure ghost town”. It’s nice. You should visit.

One stat that I read was that data centers comprised 3% of the total land in NOVA but accounted for almost 50% of property tax income.

Where did you get libertarian from? I EXPLICITLY stated that I was against powering data centers with the souls of orphans. Twice.

I like taxes. I like regulations. I dislike using the souls of orphans in industrial activities.

Not exactly card carrying libertarian material.

	▲	catapart 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Maybe try reading the article to are the land sizes they are targeting for this installation. Then check out the reason they are building these data centers: speculation for a hypothetical future where people can't afford compute hardware (due to this speculation) so they subscribe to a compute hub in their neighborhood, so that all compute is subscription based instead of owned. I got the libertarianism (or what modern morons claim is libertarianism as cover for their hyper capitalist oligarchy) from the arguments you made, not from the things you claim. Same way it's diagnosed for anyone.

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pesus 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It wasn't directed at you personally, but I think the fact that you dismiss opposition to data centers/AI as "fears, anxieties, and hardships" [...] "being exploited by demagogues attempting to consolidate their power" does reinforce my point. So does dismissing people's concerns as an "emotional frenzy". Ironically, that applies far more towards what the AI companies are working towards.

	▲	miiiiiike 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Pointing out that others are exploiting their “fears, anxieties, or hardships” is not the same as dismissing those concerns. Nor is saying that people who have been intentionally whipped into an emotional frenzy an inditement of the people moved to that emotional state. It’s an inditement of the people who used misinformation to bring people to that point. I’m not dismissing their fears. Furthest thing from it. I’m going out of my way to allay their fears by citing local circumstances and pointing out the potential benefits of development. The loudest voices against have used hypothetical hyperscale data centers built in the desert as a model. Or exclusively talking about the Musk data centers. I am not unclear: Data centers should not directly run on fossil fuels or the souls of orphans. But on nuclear? Why not?

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spencerflem 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah it’s freaky. I work in tech too, I know I’m a villain lol

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junglistguy 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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